OSAKA (Kyodo) Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. President Kunio Nakamura said Thursday that the Matsushita group will raise its targeted ratio of operating profit to sales to 5 percent under his leadership and achieve that goal.

"I will not resign until we achieve the target," Nakamura said in an interview with Kyodo News. "As I set the target myself, I would be irresponsible to step down" before reaching that goal.

The Matsushita group's operating profit margin is projected at around 2 percent for the current fiscal year.

"We will definitely achieve" the 5 percent target, said Nakamura, 64, who marks his sixth year at the helm of the consumer electronics giant in June.

He said Matsushita Electric Industrial's friendly tender offer, designed to convert Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. into a consolidated subsidiary by mid-March, is aimed at combining his company's semiconductor and other technologies with Matsushita Electric Works' business knowhow for building materials and lighting equipment.

"Collaboration with Matsushita Electric Works is necessary for us to become a top company in the world by 2010," he said.

Although Matsushita Electric Industrial will set numerical business targets for Matsushita Electric Works like other group companies, "We will not poke our nose into their management," he said.

Nakamura said the market for automobile-related electronics, such as car navigation and electronic toll collection systems, is expected to grow sharply, providing promising business opportunities for Matsushita Electric Industrial, known for its Panasonic brand.

He said the Osaka-based company will boost sales of auto-related electronics to 1 trillion yen by fiscal 2010 from 450 billion yen at present.

Nakamura also said that although the Matsushita group's reform process has already passed its peak, it will continue reform efforts in order to stabilize operations.